Fictions as Truth

1. A spontaneous demonstration erupted over a right-wing hate video of Mr. Nakoula, who was deservedly condemned for causing the deaths of four Americans by the Obama administration. His subsequent jailing was solely due to a parole violation.

2. The United States consulate in Benghazi was adequately secured before the attack and had expressed no prior serious warning about inadequate defenses.

3. There was no reasonable chance that U.S. military forces could have come to the aid of those killed in Benghazi.

4. President Obama was engaged in overseeing responses during the night of the attack.

5. Susan Rice simply relayed reasonable intelligence reports at the time that confirmed the violence was spontaneous and arose over a video. The president and Secretary Clinton seconded her assessment and have no reason to alter their judgment.

6. Intelligence operatives, not White House personnel, are largely responsible for any inconsistencies about the origins of the attack. There were no administration efforts to alter intelligence synopses.

7. CIA operatives in Benghazi were engaged in transparent and routine efforts to secure the Khadafy arsenal.

8. The Benghazi deaths were not connected to the general chaos in Libya that followed the lead-from-behind intervention to remove Khadafy.

1. Some low-level bureaucrats may have proved over-zealous in targeting some non-profit groups.

2. There was no real pattern in the political affiliations of those who were inordinately targeted by the IRS.

3. A number of conservative groups were unlawfully engaging in blatantly partisan activities, in ways not true of their liberal counterparts. So it is understandable why they in theory might have drawn the attention of IRS auditors.

4. We should not infer much from Lois Lerner’s pleading of the 5th Amendment, given right-wing attempts to smear and destroy a noble public servant.

5. The targeting of so-called Tea-party groups between late 2010 and late 2012 had no effect on the 2012 election.

6. The Obama administration has conducted a thorough investigation that now has mostly exonerated the IRS from the excesses of a few regional officials. The result is not even a smidgeon of corruption.

7. The Obama administration had no real contacts with the IRS director during the period in which the agency pursued conservative groups.

8. If any good comes from this melodrama, at least reactionary groups will think twice about their partisan giving.